A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America - Media Sabda Org

his name appeared in the Minutes. His first travels were in the bounds of the Virginia Conference.
Since 1787, he labored in the New York Conference. He was plain in dress, in manners, and plain
and pointed in preaching; and was ranked among the useful of his day. At the time of his death, in
1814, he was acting as presiding elder. On one of his circuits the Methodists had met for quarterly
meeting; but, instead of seeing their elder in the pulpit, they beheld him in his coffin. He died in bed;
the precise time was unknown to his family. His corpse was brought to the quarterly meeting, where
a funeral discourse was preached by the Rev. Joseph Crawford. He had been a traveling preacher
thirty-two years, and was fifty-six years old.
He had a son who was a local preacher among the Methodists; and kept a house of
accommodation at Saratoga Springs, where he was instrumental in establishing a Methodist church.
Mr. Asbury passed the winter of 1782 and 1783 in the South. He remarked, in passing through
Williamsburg, "This place was formerly the seat of government, but now Richmond is the seat of
government. The worldly glory of Williamsburg is departed, and it never had any divine glory."
Seeing the havoc that war had made about Suffolk, he exclaimed, "Alas for these Oliverian times;
most of the houses here, except the church, are destroyed." This was the work of [Benedict] Arnold
the traitor, who sold himself and his country for ten thousand pounds of British gold.
Some parts of North Carolina had just been settled, and it had lately passed through the ravages
of war. There was much poverty and privation endured by the people, and Methodist preachers had
to sympathize with them. Mr. Asbury observed, "In some places there was no fodder for our horses
-- no supper for us -- no family prayer." It was so difficult to obtain food for man and beast, that he
was, sometimes, glad to find one meal in twenty-four hours. In this state of things the Lord was
carrying on a glorious work among the people. At one place a child ten years old found the Lord in
a gust of lightning and thunder, and straightway preached to all the family. A poor backslider who
was present was cut to the heart, and warned all present to beware of the doctrine that there was no
falling from grace, which had been the cause of his fall.
The greatest prosperity during the past year had been in North Carolina, where five or six new
circuits had been formed; and where there was an increase of nearly one thousand. The increase in
the connection was 1955. The whole number of Methodists was 13,740. Of this number 1623 were
north of Mason and Dixon's line, and 12,117 south of it.
About this time the people of South Carolina and Georgia were calling to the Methodist preachers
to come among them. Two years afterwards these states were taken into the general work.